Covid: Infectious people 'should mix' says professor
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Long Covid could amount to the next public health crisis now the immediate threat of the pandemic is receding. The term has interchangeable definitions, but in general it has come to mean symptoms that stretch on indefinitely after ridding the initial infection. The phenomenon has puzzled the medical community but progress in finding a treatment is afoot.
Two new case studies reported in The Journal for Nurse Practitioners suggest antihistamines could deal a decisive blow to long Covid symptoms.
Antihistamines are medicines often used to relieve symptoms of allergies, such as hay fever, hives, conjunctivitis and reactions to insect bites or stings.
Two patients with long Covid reported “rapid symptom resolution” with antihistamine use, the researchers in the study summarised.
While the evidence is anecdotal, it builds on previous findings and the authors hope the stories they have detailed can give patients hope and open the door to future treatment options.
The first case detailed by researchers at UCI involves a healthcare worker in her 40s, who would have been one of the first COVID-19 patients in the United States.
The patient was probably infected sometime in January of 2020, although testing at this time was scarce.
Three days after falling ill, the patient says she was hit by a headache and a wall of severe fatigue.
Days later, she broke out in a rash and began experiencing chest pain, fevers, and night sweats. The worst of the infection lasted 24 days, but many of the symptoms lingered on. In March of the same year, she started reporting a new symptom: brain fog.
It was only when the patient took an antihistamine for a cheese allergy in June of 2020 that she experienced a sudden and marked improvement.
She started taking 50 milligrams of diphenhydramine (a common over-the-counter antihistamine) daily, but eventually took the news to her doctor, who prescribed a different medication to try and arrive at a dose that would get her symptoms under control.
The patient has now been on a prescription of 50 mg hydroxyzine pamoate for more than nine months and her symptoms of fatigue, brain fog, exercise intolerance, and chest pain are nearly gone.
Back at full-time work, she says she’s achieved 90 percent of her pre-illness functioning.
The second patient, a middle-aged teacher, has a similar story. A month after contracting SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes COVID-19, she was still suffering from joint pain, insomnia, a rapid heart rate, and difficulty concentrating. A year later, the symptoms remained debilitating.
One day, the patient randomly switched her antihistamine medication from fexofenadine to 25 milligrams of diphenhydramine, as the latter was more convenient to find.
The next morning, she noticed her brain fog and fatigue had improved, so she kept it up.
The patient now takes 25 mg of diphenhydramine at night and 180 mg fexofenadine in the morning, and says she feels 95 percent better.
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